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Radical Libertarianism: Applying Libertarian Principles to Dealing with the Unjust Government, Part II

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Radical Libertarianism: Applying Libertarian Principles to Dealing with the Unjust Government, Part II Radical Libertarianism: Applying Libertarian Principles to Dealing with the Unjust Government, Part II Walter Block Loyola University, New Orleans This is Part II of an essay that attempts to trace out the implications of the libertarian philosophy for the proper relationship between an inhabitant of a country and its unjust government. 1 Part I of this essay included Section 2, which set the stage for addressing this challenging task, Section 3, in which the essence of the state was discussed, Section 4, in which libertarian punishment theory was introduced, the beginning of Section 5, in which the concept of the libertarian Nuremberg trial was explored, and Section 5a, wherein the assumption that all citizens are guilty of the crimes of the unjust state was rejected. In Part II of this essay, we now begin with section 5b, which considers the possibility that all and only minions of the unjust state are guilty for its crimes, in a continuation of our libertarian Nuremberg trial analysis. Section 5c introduces libertarian ruling class theory. Section 6 traces out the proper relations between the subjects and the unjust government. Section 7 asks whether it is ever legitimate to disrupt such an institution, and we conclude in Section 8. 5b. All and only minions of the state are guilty A second possibility is that all politicians, judges, bureaucrats, and any other type of government employee of the Nazi German state are guilty of crimes against freedom, and that this applies to no one else. There are grave problems with this perspective as well. First, it is over-inclusive. It will capture in its net of guilt people at the very bottom of the statist pyramid of power: those who clean government cesspools, carry away the garbage, rake the leaves, deliver the mail door to door, wash the public toilets, etc. These people, surely, are more sinned against than sinning. As well, it includes anyone associated with a public university: professor, 1 Part I of this paper appeared as Walter Block, “Radical Libertarianism: Applying Libertarian Principles to Dealing with the Unjust Government, Part I,” Reason Papers 27 (Fall 2004), pp. 117-33. Reason Papers 28 (Spring 2006): 85-109. Copyright © 2006 Reason Papers Vol. 28 student, administrator, grounds keeper, etc., and anyone involved in a state hospital: doctor, nurse, floor-sweep, etc. It will also declare guilty those who have striven mightily to overturn the evil system, but from a position within government. Take Ron Paul, for example. 2 Although he is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, he is a libertarian in good standing. His congressional votes are all on the side of liberty.3 During any proper libertarian Nuremberg trial, he would be on the bench, not in the dock. Second, it is under-inclusive. It gives a free ride to all those not officially part of the government who may have nevertheless played important roles in supporting the Nazi evil, for example, the businessmen who bankrolled Hitler into power not out of defensive motives, but for their own purposes, 4 as well as the intellectuals who wove apologetics and defenses for the regime. 5 c. Ruling class theory A third perspective, which far better separates the innocent wheat from the guilty chaff is ruling class theory. It must be admitted at the outset that this sounds rather tinny to the libertarian ear since it is usually couched in Marxist rhetoric. According to Marxism, the ruling class is composed of those who employ labor and the victims are employees. The exploitation of the latter by the former occurs because of the labor theory of value. Workers are responsible for the total product; they receive it, but only when profits are subtracted. The difference between the entire GDP and labor's share of it, typically in the neighborhood 6 of 75 percent, measures the level of exploitation. 2 Whenever a person from the U.S. is mentioned, or from any country other than Cuba, North Korea, the U.S.S.R., or Nazi Germany, I am using him only as a hypothetical example. More specifically, in referring to Ron Paul, I have in mind the contrary-to- fact case of his equivalent in one of these four outlaw states. 3 Typically, whenever there is a 436 to 1 vote, it is Ron Paul who is in the minority. 4 Motive is not always unimportant. I argued that it should all but be ignored in the case of accidental murder, or in the shooting of an innocent person by a baby in the crib. However, motive can also determine membership in the ruling class, or not, as I shall discuss below. 5 We discuss below the difference between aiding and abetting evil, on the one hand, e.g., being a member of a criminal gang who himself commits no explicit violence such as the getaway car driver, and free speech, on the other hand. 6 Morgan O. Reynolds , Economics of Labor (South-Western College Publishing, 1995). 86 Reason Papers Vol. 28 But this is nonsense on stilts, apart from the fact that millions of people have been killed by communists under the banner of this philosophy, and millions more made to suffer economically because of it. 7 Mud pies are worth far less than cherry pies, even if an identical amount of labor goes in to the creation of the two "products." 8 A gold nugget lying on the ground in plain sight, big as a fist, is highly valuable, even though it takes no virtually no labor to pick it up. So much for Marxist class theory. But libertarian class analysis is entirely another matter. In this case, the exploiter is not the employer, nor the exploitee the employee. Very much to the contrary, the "bad guy" is the thief or murderer, and the "good guy" is the victim of this aggression against non- aggressors. John C. Calhoun 9 noted that the fiscal activities of the government— taxing and subsidizing—necessarily 10 divided the populace into two groups of people: net tax-payers and net tax-consumers. Those who paid in more than they were reimbursed would be considered victims, and those who spent less than they took from the system would be victimizers. This is a reasonably good, but only first, approximation to the distinction between members of the ruled and ruling classes. If we could but ignore what I will below call the Ragnar Danneskjold phenomenon, there would be a perfect congruency between the two sets of concepts. One group that would receive the attention of our libertarian Nurembergers is, of course, private criminals: purse snatchers, auto thieves, rapists, etc. There is nothing controversial here. But this also applies to all those responsible for government (for the libertarian anarchist) and excessive government (in the case of the minarchist); they would also and very properly be considered criminals. Government of this sort is the very embodiment of 7 Eugen Bohm-Bawerk, Capital and Interest trans. George D. Hunke and Hans F. Sennholz (Libertarian Press, 1959 [1884]); see particularly Part I, Chapter XII, "Exploitation Theory of Socialism-Communism." 8 The Marxist might reply that only "socially necessary" labor counts, and it has been applied to the cherry pie, not its mud counterpart. But this is circular, as the only way we can beforehand know that the one embodies socially necessary labor, and the other not, is by already having information as to the very different values of these two products. That is, there is no definition of socially valuable labor that is independent of markets and consumer demands, the real source of value. 9 John C. Calhoun, A Disquisition on Government (Liberal Arts Press, 1953), pp. 16- 18. 10 Unless, of course, what each person pays into the government coffers, in the form of taxes, is exactly what he takes out of them in the form of subsidies. But this, in the words of Calhoun, “would make the process nugatory and absurd . .” Ibid., p. 17. 87 Reason Papers Vol. 28 the violation of the libertarian non-aggression axiom. The state is systematic, organized, initiatory violence. The only difference between the two sources of brutalization is that the latter has achieved a modicum of legitimacy, based on the massive amounts of its very well invested money in suborning the academic, journalistic, religious and intellectual classes. A word is needed about free speech. The right to say exactly what you please 11 is something near to the very core of libertarianism. This philosophy, indeed, takes a rather extremist position on free speech, championing such things as libel, 12 blackmail, 13 even incitement 14 to violence. 11 On your own property, of course. 12 Murray N. Rothbard, The Ethics of Liberty (New York University Press, 1998), pp. 126-28; Walter Block, Defending the Undefendable (Fox and Wilkes, 1991), pp. 59- 62. 13 Eric Mack, "In Defense of Blackmail," Philosophical Studies 41 (1982), p. 274; Rothbard, The Ethics of Liberty ; Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy and State (Mises Institute, 1993), p. 443 n. 49; Ronald Joseph Scalise, Jr., “Blackmail, Legality and Liberalism,” Tulane Law Review 74 (2000), pp. 1483-1517; Walter Block, "The Blackmailer as Hero," The Libertarian Forum (December 1972), pp. 1-4; Walter Block, Defending the Undefendable (Fox and Wilkes, 1976), pp. 44-49; Walter Block and David Gordon, "Extortion and the Exercise of Free Speech Rights: A Reply to Professors Posner, Epstein, Nozick and Lindgren," Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 19, no. 1 (November 1985), pp. 37-54; Walter Block, "Trading Money for Silence," University of Hawaii Law Review 8, no. 1 (Spring 1986), pp.
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